Electro-mechanical sensors are devices for converting mechanical stimulus into electrical signals so that the stimulus can be detected or measured. An example of an electro-mechanical sensor is a capacitive sensor. A capacitive sensor typically includes a pair of opposing plates whose capacitance increases as the distance between the opposing plates decreases, or the permittivity of a dielectric medium between the plates increases, due to mechanical stimulus. Capacitive sensors offer advantages such as high sensitivity, tunable spatial resolution when used in an array configuration, and a simple, well-known governing equation.
One application of electro-mechanical sensors is tactile sensing. Tactile sensing is a field of great interest due to its potential impact in robotic sensing applications such as robot-assisted surgery and robotic grasp and manipulation, among other applications. In many cases, visual feedback and acoustic feedback alone do not provide the information necessary for decision making in robotic sensing applications. A classic case is that of an amputee who accidentally crushes or drops an object with his prosthetic hand due to inadequate tactile information about the hand-object interaction.
A difficulty in implementing tactile sensors in robotic applications is that robotic applications often require robust tactile sensing capabilities on curved surfaces, such as artificial fingertips. Such sensing capabilities can be difficult to implement with existing electro-mechanical sensors.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide new electro-mechanical sensors.